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Monthly Archives: March 2010

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This car accident took place at a petrol station at Taman Midah, Cheras. A driver was killed when a car lost control and rammed into the petrol station. This security video shows the horrifying crash:

[Video removed due to request from a visitor]

It would be hard to prevent such an accident. But it serves as a reminder that we should always be aware of our surroundings and be alert at all times. Always be on the look out for suspicious activity or anything out of the ordinary. Always be prepared for the unexpected. Then hopefully we’ll be able to react in time to avoid accidents. Continue reading →

My last day in Birmingham. My bus was scheduled to leave at 3:30pm so I had time for lunch. Joanne cooked again. I want a live-in chef! Thanks for letting me bum over too! Hope I didn’t incur too much heating bills!

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery in the morning.

Walking down the Bullring towards Digbeth coach station.

Journey back to London was slightly delayed because the bus used some small roads. Probably to avoid the snow or jam.

Golders Green station. This was about 6pm.

It was snowing when I arrived back in London. Took this video showing the high street:

After leaving my bags I took the tube to London Bridge to meet up with Sel and Fay for dinner. We had Nandos in a dungeon. Unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera along so no photos of the interior. Thanks Fay for the birthday dinner!

This was my last night in London. My flight was at night the next day so I still had a bit of time before I need to go to the airport. My aunts brought me out for lunch and around Golders Green. Everything was covered in snow and it looked absolutely amazing.

This was at a football field. The snow here was very pure and undisturbed and fluffy. You could lie down and just sleep in it.

Took the cab to the airport hours before my flight. There was a slight jam on the way but since I was early I wasn’t too concerned. Checked in without a hitch and sat down to wait for my flight at the departure hall. They have free wall chargers here!

Check in hall.

Flight took off without incident. Slept for a greater part of the journey. 13 hours later I’m back in KL. 11 days well spent

I would like to thank the following people for making this trip such an enjoyable one: Aunt Peng for letting me stay over at Golders Green and for the generous hospitality; Aunt Mei for being my personal tour guide through the various museums in London, and I don’t think I can find a better guide anywhere else; Joanne, Sel and Fay for letting me bum over and bringing me around. Had a really good time with you all. And for all of you that I missed out here, it wouldn’t have been the same without you guys!

Before that we had real English breakfast near Paradise Circus. It was close to 3 pounds only for a large serving of toast, eggs, sausages, ham and vege that I couldn’t even finish. Thanks for the breakfast Nick! By the way, the screen’s showing the login for Windows.

Unfortunately photography was not allowed in the exhibition. But basically the exhibition tears apart the human body and lets you study them up close. They remove skin off real humans so you can see the muscles underneath them. They use a special technique to preserve the models so they won’t rot away.

And they also found a way to display the blood vessels that are in your body! Image courtesy: tjcrawford.com

A closer view. Image courtesy: townnews.com

This is one of the most interesting exhibition that I’ve been to and it definitely helps you understand the human body better when you have everything stripped down and laid out nicely for you.

By today the snow had started melting. Remember I promise to show you the ugly side of snow? This is it:

Brown, muddy, slushy, dirty, and wet snow.

The Wheel of Birmingham. Sunset at 2pm.

We went over to Chinatown to get some supplies for laksa. I swear that there are more Chinese people in Chinatown than here in Malaysia. Even in KL I don’t see that many Chinese people in one place.

Joanne made Sarawak laksa.

Love these slippers. But I can’t help but imagining myself stepping on cute puppies with every step I take.

After dinner Joanne and I went to catch the Daybreakers. Really interesting movie. Plot was predictable, and a bit anti-climatic. But I absolutely love the “daytime driving” feature on their cars!

Second day in Birmingham. Went to Sealife with Joanne which was walking distance from her place. Since it was a weekday it was practically empty and we had the whole place to ourselves. At least before a group of school children came along.

Map of Sealife Birmingham.

A bit too many species of sealife to see. They have fish, crabs, starfish, turtles, seahorses, stingrays, sharks, beavers, frogs, jellyfishes and other weird animals.

A seahorse. The male seahorses actually carry the eggs until they hatch.

Luminous jelly fishes. These jelly fishes were illuminated with a black light from above.

We saw some ducks on a half frozen pond swimming about. How do they stand the cold?

This is the ocean tunnel, not unlike what most underwater world has to offer. Here you get to see 2 loggerhead sea turtles. Gigantic creatures, but amazingly graceful in the waters.

An apparently dead turtle at Sealife:

We left after going through the place twice. Watched a 4D movie and saw them feed the otters. They even managed to train them. I guess when the incentive is food, they’ll do anything for it.

Boat restaurant on a half frozen canal.

Not exactly frozen but I’m sure I can get from one side to the other by jumping on slabs of frozen ice.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

We dropped by Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery after Sealife. Museums really take up a lot of time because there are so many things to see. And winter didn’t help either because the days are greatly shortened.

At the Birmingham Bull ring. This is where all the shopping centers and retail shops are located. You can still see piles of snow on the pavement.

This strange building covering looks brilliant when lit up at night by spotlights. If you use Windows 7, one of the desktop backgrounds in the architecture category is a shot of this building.

It snowed last night so the streets were covered with snow the next morning. Today’s the day I journey to Birmingham on a bus.

Snow. Soft and fluffy. Similar to the ones you get on your ice-kacang.

Except that there are tons of it on the street now. They don’t melt very fast. And snow on cars are not easily removed because they usually form a very hard layer. So it’s more like scraping ice off than blowing snow off cars.

Looking down towards the high street.

Since I was heading up north, it was going to get colder with higher possibility of snow. And heavy snow may cause the motorways to be jammed and stuck. There have been cases where people were stuck in their cars for hours and froze to death suffered hypothermia.

Coffee at the nearby Starbucks. The bus station is just behind me. Thanks Aunty Peng for the coffee and photo!

On the bus. They have heaters so it’s actually quite comfy.

Forgot to take a photo of the bus, but it was National Express and it runs straight from Golders Green to Birmingham Central. Luckily the snow did not cause any jams on the motorway and I reached there on time. Then I took a cab to Joanne’s apartment somewhere in Birmingham. The most vivid memory of her apartment is the cold. For some reason she never use the heaters and she likes to open her windows when it’s snowing outside.

Looking out from her apartment.

Birmingham was covered with snow! It snowed so much that it was possible to make a snowman. I did try and if Joanne can still find that video I will post it up.

It was going to be cold in Birmingham.

I slept during the afternoon because I was too tired after the bus ride. Had Joanne’s homecooked food for lunch and dinner. I’ll be fat if I stay there for too long! We went and watched Daybreakers Sherlock Holmes at the local cinema at night. Love the free seating here!